ICC Note:

Churches throughout eastern Uganda have been warned by the United States Embassy and others of potential attacks to be launched upon them by radical Islamist militants affiliated with the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency, Al-Shabaab. In addition, Uganda’s anti-terrorist police and police board have committed to providing churches with security during Sunday a worship, a necessary preemptive move in ensuring parishioners safety.

05/25/2014 Uganda (World Watch Monitor) – Uganda and Kenya authorities have scaled up security in recent days in response to warnings from Western countries that a jihadist group is planning to attack churches in Uganda.

The U.S. embassy in Uganda warned that churches there may face “specific threats” from Al Shabab, a Somalia-based militant Islamist terrorist group. The threats against the two East African countries are said to be due to each having peacekeeping troops in Somalia.

“All the churches have been informed. The anti-terrorist police and police board in Uganda are providing security to the churches. There are further efforts to inform the people on what the explosives may look like so that they can identify them. We are especially concerned about the situation based on what we have seen happening in Kenya,” Rev. Mead Birungi of World Shine Ministries told World Watch Monitor during the International Convention on Healing of the Nation last week.

On May 21, a grenade attack a few metres from a mosque in Garissa, close to the Kenyan border with Somalia, is believed to have killed one and injured 11. No one yet has claimed responsibility. On May 16, 10 people were reported killed and more than 70 people injured in Gikomba, a market in the capital city, Nairobi. Three people died and 86 were injured during a twin blast May 5 along Kenya’s busy Thika highway.

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